NBC Isn’t Streaming the Tour de France World Feed. Fans Are Fuming

Is this going to ruin the Tour?

Tour de France fans in the United States are pissed. The fan response to NBC’s decision not to broadcast the World Feed for the Tour de France alongside NBC’s U.S. feed this year has been met with serious dissatisfaction.

In the past, fans could choose between the World Feed, which covered just the race happening, and the NBC Feed, which interspersed the race with commentary and past highlights. This year, NBC Sports’ commentators include Phil Liggett, Bob Roll, Steve Porino, Christian Vande Velde, Paul Burmeister, Sam Bewley, and Brent Bookwalter. The complaints aren’t really about the commentators themselves, but about the cuts in the middle of racing action, the constant ad breaks, and the fact that the stages aren’t available to watch as simply really, really long races.

These two feeds—NBC’s bonus content-filled stages and the World Feed, which is just the racing action—appeal to different fan bases. It’s easy to see how a newer cycling fan would enjoy hearing from the U.S. commentators and getting more context for the race while watching it for the first time. But it’s also understandable that longtime cycling fans prefer the strictly moment-to-moment race coverage from the World Feed.

According to Dan Masonson, NBC’s VP of Communications, in prior years, multiple feeds were used to “accommodate multiple platforms.”

“Now, with the event almost exclusively on Peacock with the exception of a handful of stages simulcast on NBC, we are programming a single feed with our popular and longtime Tour de France announce team,” Masonson told Bicycling.

When asked if the World Feed would ever reappear, he added, “We don’t have our coverage for future years planned at this time.”

What has people annoyed with the Peacock stream versus the World Feed? A blend of commercials, commentators, and B-roll footage that breaks up the coverage.

“In prior years, it looked like they were using the same video feeds as the World Feed but with Bob and Phil [NBC’s commentators] instead of Ant and Nico [the commentators on the World Feed],” said one commenter on a Reddit thread dedicated to this year’s coverage.

“I could have lived with that. But now it looks like the raw feeds with all of their own cuts and graphics, which I can’t stand. I’m not enjoying their packages, the constant useless scroll, any of it. I won’t be able to make it three weeks.”

“I’m regretting getting Peacock even for a month,” added another. “Wow, same ads over and over. Who in their right mind is planning their trip to the Olympics a month before the games? That ad was shown in every ad break.”

“So unwatchable. I didn’t make it to the first commercial break before I shut it off. I am looking at not enjoying my favorite July pastime for the first time in a long time. Sad, sad American,” said one more.

“The people who broadcast cycling seem to hate the people who watch cycling,” exclaimed another Reddit thread. “There’s no other explanation.”

There’s even a petition to bring back the World Feed. But in the meantime, many U.S. fans are opting for ‘nontraditional’ ways of viewing it rather than streaming on Peacock.

It will be interesting to see Peacock’s viewership numbers at the end of the Tour compared to previous years. Hopefully, any drop in longtime fans will prompt a return of the World Feed option for next year rather than cuts in coverage, considering NBC has the Tour rights through 2028.